The potential legal ramifications of pharmacies using volunteers

Our guest for this podcast was Andrea James. Andrea is a regulatory lawyer advising doctors, pharmacists, vets, teachers & other highly regulated professionals.

Andrea is a partner at Brabners. She leads their Professional Discipline and Healthcare Regulatory team, providing vital insight to our wider Regulatory team and Healthcare sector group. You can contact Andrea to engage her services by clicking here.

In the first of two podcasts, we discussed how the recent fast-moving legislative changes and action by the GPhC may impact on the practise of pharmacy in the UK.

In this second podcast, we have a discussion about the use of volunteers to deliver medicines. NHS England announced a new essential and advanced delivery service. The services involve community pharmacy contractors being used to work with volunteers to deliver medication during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whilst we discussed all relevant aspects of the delivery service and use of volunteers Andrea made interesting comments on potential liability issues that may arise during the running of the services.

Please note that this podcast was recorded before the RPS and GPhC published their joint statement on the impact on ‘pharmacy professionals’.

Essential listening if you are a pharmacy contractor about to engage with this service.

We discussed and recommended the Royal Pharmaceutical Society guidance on ethical professional decision making during the pandemic.

We also chatted about the Headspace app. You can access and download it here. If you are under pressure and feel that you need support at this time click here.